Setsoantso sa lelapa is Sesotho for a family photo.
In 2014, I started a series of portraits with people holding photographs and documents they preserved through decades of change. These objects —family portraits, wedding photos, identity books— are often the only surviving evidence of a person's family history. The project was inspired by the Bloemfontein National Museum’s oral history initiative on Batho Location, the city’s oldest township. It adds a visual dimension to the recorded histories.
Betty Lulana Mgoni holds a framed analog colour photo, depicting her and her late husband John. Mr Mgoni was a traditional healer, Betty worked as a nanny in Cape Town. The photo was made for their wedding in 1968. MaBetty was my Xhosa granny; she passed away earlier this year, on the 21st of March 2026. Robala ka khotso, mama. (Kamastone, Eastern Cape).
Moniemang Eva Montwedi, posing with her dompas. The identity photo depicts her as a young woman. The pass was conceived to restrict black people's freedom of movement in the segregated South Africa. Black citizens found outside their designated 'location' after curfew were prosecuted. With the pass, they could access white city centers and suburbs to work, but they were banned from its streets after 10 PM. (Heidedal, Mangaung, Free State).
Catherine Mary Yvonne Ledimo holds what is left of the hand-coloured wedding photograph of her parents, band leader Sun Shine Leepile Ledimo and professional ballroom dancer and singer Esme Diona Wright. Esme, who was white, and her mixed-race husband were charged under the Immorality Act, an Apartheid-era law criminalising interracial relationships. (Heidedal, Mangaung, Free State).
Gideon Sefuba, son of Moses Sefuba and Tebora Thwalo, holds a portrait of his father. Father Moses worked as a shop assistant for a certain Jeffreys, who ran the village general store. After 30 years he opened his own shop. Uncle Gideon bred and sold live stock until severe arthritis forced him to stop working. (Kamastone, Eastern Cape).
Bessie Moreki is a retired office clerk. She holds a plastic-wrapped digital enlargement of a black-and-white photograph, taken on her brother Joel Matheza 's wedding day in the mid-fifties. Bessie is the lady with the radiant smile, standing in the middle. Mrs. Moreki remained childless after an early divorce. She still lives in the house her parents built. (Bochabela, Mangaung, Free State).
Pieter Van Rooyen is a hotel manager. He holds a framed 1960s colour photograph of his grandparents, Petrus Hendrik and Maria Suzanna Van Rooyen. P.H. Van Rooyen -who sports the regalia of his position as mayor of Virginia- was a Headmaster at Grey College in Bloemfontein. (Bloemfontein, Free State).
Kebogile Martha Khosholo holds a portrait of her grandfather, Seatlholo Simon Keme. Mr. Keme raised Martha and her two sisters on his farm in Thaba Nchu where he grew crops and raised cattle. She remembers that grandfather was strict but very loving too. During school holidays, she and her sisters worked on the farm "like boys, but it seemed normal". (Rocklands, Mangaung, Free State).
Derek du Bruyn, historian at the National Museum in Bloemfontein, holding the portrait of his great-grandfather, Hendrik Scheepers. Hendrik was a sheep farmer in the Vicksburg area. The portrait was made before the Anglo-Boer War, ca. 1890. (Bloemfontein, Free State).
Janie John Tladi holds the framed, hand-coloured wedding portrait of his parents, Jacob Rajani Tladi and Mathapelo Miriam Tladi. The couple married in 1950. Janie's father worked at the post office but he also owned cattle and sold milk. His mother was a domestic worker. (Bultfontein, Lejweleputswa district, Free State).
Angeline Mboyi is a retired teacher. She holds the framed, hand-coloured wedding portrait of her parents. (Batho Location, Mangaung, Free State).
Retired typist Mrs. Barbara Greyling is a keen genealogist and painter with a home full of old photographs and artworks. She holds a framed, analog black-and-white portrait of her parents and siblings: the Prior family. In 1948, Errol and Sophie Prior posed with their children in a photographer's studio in Aliwal North. Barbara, who was 3 when the photo was taken, sits on her father's lap. She has fond memories of the portrait session. Errol Prior worked in the diamond mines in Jagersfontein and later in the goldmines of Welkom where he taught Fanagalo, a language based primarily on Zulu, with English and a small Afrikaans input, used as a lingua franca in the mining industries in South Africa.
Mrs Lefosa, posing with a portrait of her former employer. (Batho Location, Mangaung, Free State).
Dora Malefane holds a framed black-and-white photograph featuring her grandmother (1st row, 1st sitting from the left, with the black headscarf). The group portrait depicts the ladies of The Mother's Union at the St. Augustine Mission in Thaba Nchu in 1936. (Bochabela/Bloemfontein, Free State).
Vanessa Mphatsa holds an analog colour photo of her parents, Bernard and Elisabeth Mphatsa. Vanessa's father worked at GoodYear, her mother was a surgery room technician at Pelonomi Hospital in Heidedal. Mrs. Mphatsa is a single mother of 3, a boy and his twin sisters Tshepang and Tshepiso. She shares her home with brother Shauny and an old lady who was abandoned by her family. (Rocklands/Bloemfontein, Free State).
Andre Stephan Karsten holds a framed colour photograph, printed on canvas, of himself as a teenager. Mr. Karsten teaches at the Jimmie Roos Skool, a reform school for boys. (Dewetsdorp, Free State).
An unidentified member of the Tshwaranang Ladies' Luncheon Club holds a framed, hand-coloured black-and-white portrait of her parents. (Batho Location/Bloemfontein, Free State).
Khotso Pudumo holds a framed analog black-and-white print of the wedding portrait of his maternal great-grandparents, Samuel Tlale Nkone and Rosta Nobelungu Nkone. Great-grandfather Samuel was a prison warden, Gran Rosta a domestic worker. Mr. Pudumo is a historian at the National Museum in Bloemfontein. (Bochabela/Bloemfontein, Free State).
Samuel Magengenene, who is named after the gentleman in the portrait, holds a plastic-wrapped, hand-coloured black-and-white photograph of his great-grandparents, Samuel Tlae Nkone and Rosta Nobelungu. Grandfather Samuel was a prison warden, Gran Rosta a domestic worker. (Bochabela/Bloemfontein, Free State).
Friedel Smith holds a framed, hand-coloured analog black-and-white print of a portrait depicting herself as a one-year-old. Friedel was put up for adoption right after birth. Her mother, who was 19 when the baby was born, would have been frowned upon for having a child out of wedlock. They reconnected 43 years later when Friedel started searching her biological mother. (Dewetsdorp, Free State).
Ann Naidu holds a black-and-white portrait of her parents Rama and Lutchmee, printed on a porcelain plate. Mrs. Naidu works as a sales clerk. (Westdene/Bloemfontein, Free State).
Rethabile Mpalami holds an analog black-and-white photo of his father Solomon. Solomon worked as a manager in the mines in Soweto. Mr. Mpalami has been a maths teacher since 1978. He works at the Nteboheng Primary School in Botshabelo. (Botshabelo, Free State).
Seipati Manake holds a framed, hand-coloured black-and-white photograph of her grandparents, Elymus Pitso Manake and Alina Motshidiso Teboho Manake. (Phahameng/Bultfontein, Free State).
The late Reverend Israel G. Swanepoel, posing with a portrait of his parents. (Batho Location/Bloemfontein, Free State).
Majoro Elias Potsanyane and his late wife Gladys. Majoro holds a a framed black-and-white photograph, a cherished souvenir of their wedding day on the 30th of November 1977. Gladys passed away a few days short of the couple's 32nd wedding anniversary. Mr. Potsanyane is retired now; he used to work as a gardener for the Tswelopele municipality.
Estelle Van Vuuren is a retired nurse. She holds a framed, analog colour portrait of her mother, Aletta Susanna Ballot. The portrait was made in the 1950s by Werners Studio in Bloemfontein. In 1969, Alette married Jurie Hermanus Van Vuuren Jr, who was a medical photographer. (Universitas/Bloemfontein, Free State).
Delores Maritz, holding a framed, hand-coloured portrait of her husband as a young man. (Heidedal/Bloemfontein, Free State).
Ernst Jordaan holds the framed, hand-coloured portraits of his grandparents. Mr. Jordaan is a psychic medium, author and gay rights activist. (Fleurdal, Mangaung, Free State).
Hilda Sefuba, holding a framed colour photo of her late daughter Marriam. (Kamastone, Eastern Cape).
Adelina Seboilwe Dibe holds a framed hand-coloured portrait of her parents, Zacharia Majawetsa and Anne M'Chopi. The photo was made in the late 1930's. Mrs. Majawetsa worked at home and raised Adelina and her two sisters while her husband served in the South African army. After his discharge, he worked for the railroads. (Batho Location/Bloemfontein, Free State).
Engela Roets holds a framed, hand-coloured photograph (ca. 1920) of her grandfather, Christoffel Vermeulen, who was a diamond digger. (Dan Pienaar/Bloemfontein, Free State).
Jan Karsten and his wife Annetjie hold the framed, hand-coloured black-and white portraits of Jan's maternal grandparents, Petrus Johannes and Beatrix Petronella Catharina Louwrens. (Dewetsdorp, Free State).
Mapheello 'Mapu' Agnes Qabalatsane (born Oct 17 1972) holds an analog black-and-white print of her parents' wedding portrait. Johannes Montsioa Qabalatsane and his wife Anastasia owned a grocery store and a bottle store in Kroonstad. Dad loved country music: Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Hank Williams... Only on the 25th of December, he would play his music for the entire neighbourhood, while Mapu's mom served custard cake to all her friends. Mrs. Qabalatsane teaches at Nteboheng Primary School in Botshabelo. (Thaba Nchu, Free State).